Love to Miss Class?

[nuclearrabbit77]

i've recently adopted a unilateral ditch class policy.

so far i love it!

i find it much more productive to read on my own than to listen to a lecture that is in most cases inefficient and less comprehensive compared to the readings. (or some pedantic lecturer that constantly makes references to their research in the field)
in addition, lecture slides and outlines are on the web.

does anyone else miss class frequently??

does anyone else miss class and still do really well on tests?

nuclearrabbit

northwestern - class 2006

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[KyGrlDr2B]

Ask Mongoose. LOL He didn't come to lecture for about a week and the guy who sits behind him thought he dropped out.

 

[womansurg]

How many of you guys were wondering who in the heck "Miss Class" was?

Yo! Word to Miss Class!

 

[tega]

i have only been to histo lectures4 times. all of which i slept through. totally useles to stend that class. i got to labs tho..thats required.

the text we use was written by the chairman of the department.

and he lectures about half the time, and his lects are directly from the book..which is a very good book.

the coure director tho....tends to add extra stuff..i think there is some tension goin on b/w him and the dept chair. He alwyz deviates from the book and has these snotty remarks about things in the book. so i heard.

but u know how these docs are...they think their word is bond. alwyz wanna criticize others.


i hear u tho..half the guest lecturers we get in physio just wanna talk about their research. i rther use that time to sleep.

Behavioral sci is just a joke. but attensdanc is required for that....but even tho i have only been to that class about 8 times....i have a perfect attendance on record. go figure! hahaha....

 

[Crusher]

I never attended any lectures through the second half of first year and all of last year. Skipped all the labs too unless it was required. Again, time management is key. I've done quite fine throughout as well.

 

[THE instiGATOR]

I attend Gross lectures. I'm not doing so hot in it and don't want to piss off the profs. I often skip my other classes, though. My classmates rag me about it (small class). In all honesty, I'd rather go to the histo lab while they are in lecture. I read the same material there that they are being lectured on. In addition, I have a scope right next to me, so I can look at the structures as they are mentioned in the text.

I'm sure my less than regular attendance will be noted somewhere, but hopefully my grades will show that I'm not exactly sleeping in while others are attending class.

Who needs to attend lectures when you've got transcripts?!?

 

[14931]

Originally posted by womansurg
How many of you guys were wondering who in the heck "Miss Class" was?

Yo! Word to Miss Class!

hehe

 

[puffy1]

I've got a classmate (a good friend) who is considered a myth in my class. People have called him the "loch ness med student". There have been sightings and sketchings, but no one's actually seen him in the last two years except on test days.

 

[Hard Corologist]

I would normally go for the first week of class to get an idea of what to read and study. After the first week I would sit down and spend the 6-8 hours a day on my own blasting through the material. Don't get me wrong, I had to ask the prof and other students questions at times. It's worked for me....4.0 after 2 full years. Some people do well listening and others do well on their own??

 

[kd]

I almost never go to class either, except for the required clinical sessions and labs. We have a brutal lecture schedule - most days 8 AM-3 or 4 PM and if I tried to go to lecture, I would be brain dead after the first hour or so. Fortunately, our path professor is a really cool dude who put all of his slides and lecture notes on a CD, so I sit at home and study path whenever I'm so inclined, be it 2 AM or whatever. Our other professors, unfortunately, haven't followed suit, but I usually get one of my friends to get handouts and stuff for me and then study at my own convenience. It works a LOT better for me this way. I get absolutely NOTHING out of going to lecture because I am just not the type that can passively sit still and listen.

 

[swing]

This really depends on what type of learner you are. I never went to any of my undergrad chem or physics lectures - ever. I showed up for labs and tests only.

In med school, I went to everything the first semester of first year for almost the whole semester, but I was so tired after spending the whole day in school and labs, that I didn't get much quality study in the evening and didn't do all that hot on exams. Finally, after reaching the point where I hated school, dreaded exams, and was tired all the time, I said "Hell with this!" and started going only when a new class started (and even then only for the first day), or a "hands-on" event like the 1 afternoon each week in clinic where we learned to do histories and physicals.

I learned that:
1) my best study time is the first 6-7 hours immediately after I awake
2) I don't learn from being talked at, and besides it's all in our handouts
3) I like to actually read the text and learn that way
4) study groups are a waste of time

We also have Lectures On Line at our school, and I'll watch these later in the afternoon when I'm getting more tired.

Now my answer may not be right for anyone but me, and lots of people study differently and think I'm crazy, but it works for me. My friends at school treat me like a long-lost relative when they see me, which is only for exams.

If you can motivate yourself to study on your own and stay up to date, an if you don't get much out of lectures, you can certainly do this on your own. Just make sure you discover which combination of resources and approaches works best for YOU!

 

[kltmd]

Yeah... I'm definitely learning to make the best use of my time. We're only taking one class at a time... so anatomy ends this Thursday (wahoo!!). I've found that some lecturers are impossible to keep up with for notetaking... while others do a great job. Depends on their slides, notes, and speed. We have to come in for lab and small group classes... but the rest is up to us. Slides and an audio of each lecture are put online, so sometimes it's definitely better to learn on my own. Skipping class for some extra sleep is also a great benefit!! Textbooks are out of the question though... our slides and notes are so in-depth that we only use our books for further explanation. I can't wait 'till this class ends... no more dissecting Harold...

 

[nuclearrabbit77]

well, i placed in the top 15 percent on the first exam, we'll see how the year progresses.
but the first test is a joke. we'll see. personally, from all the crap i hear about histo, i dont think going to lecture for that will help anyways. cochard's lectures i should go to......oh well.



nuclearrabbit

 

[japhy]

you do not need to go to class ever! not first year, and certainly not second year. i quickly found out that most lectures do not add anything to your notes, syllabi whatever. i much prefer to go skiing or biking. and i rarely find myself below the mean, i constantly am scoring 1 SD above it. but as mentioned earlier, find what works for you. some people have to hear this stuff and others (like us thank god) can sleep in and study later.

 

[deleted4401]

I think it's almost impossible to judge how someone else will do if they skip class, and that one has to figure that out on their own. And I also truly believe that some people are audio learners and some are visual learners and some are written learners; to say that one CANNOT 'place one S.D. over the mean' if they don't study a certain way ... That is a sweeping generalization. If there is a legit note service, it is IDENTICAL to a lecture (meaning the notetaker should emphasize what is emphasized during the lecture).

That being said, I try to go to class if I'm caught up for it and if it is a doctor/clinician that I know lectures well. Otherwise, I'm just not good at listening to someone speak for 2-5 hours a day, and I'm daydreaming about all kinds of stuff.

Later,
Simul

 

[shag]

Everyone has their own learning style, and because of the high volume of material, inefficient methods shouldn't be used. For me, classes that were high in memorization (cell, histo, pharm) were very low yield, where thinking classes like physiology and pathophys were helpful. I would look at a course schedule, highlight lectures that looked useful, and attend those.

It seems like the key to skipping class is having a good transcript service so you don't miss anything important. At UAB, we have a student run service where each lecture is transcribed by 1 student and proofed by another. Our AV guy records lectures on tape, and a student records the lecture on computer so it can be streamed over the net. We have a system set up with a rotating schedule where a "scribe" types up the lecture using a template in outline format and gets it to the proofer that afternoon. The "proofer" proof reads the transcript and delivers it to our copy service by 8:00 AM the next morning. Transcripts are printed and in student mailboxes before lunch the day after the lecture. We usually only have about 1 or 2 late transcripts per month. Scripts are usually 4 - 7 pages and often referenced to lecture slides available on the web.

Enough bragging about our transcript service (yes, I was on the committee ). In my opinion, there is no way to memorize 4 fifty minute lists of biochem structures/reactions/pathways, which is what my biochem lectures essentially were. My time was much better spent skipping class and cramming the material from the previous days lecture during that time.

 

[chef]

everyone has a different learning style and his/her fav way of learning - do whatever appeals to u.. remember there's no 'right' way - if it works for u, it's all good..

btw, i just wanna say dr.ben carson's interview on abc a week ago was da bomb.. best eVar.. basically he admitted on national tv that during medical school at U of Michigan, he neVar went to class!!! hahahahahaha LOL

 

[Docgeorge]

Do you know if they will ever be playing the Ben Carson interview again?

 

[Fermi]

I kinda feel bad for the people who just can't get anything out of going to lectures. Basically, you're paying (borrowing) tens of thousands of dollars a year to sit home and study for two years. The only thing for which you're getting your money's worth is the labs and clinical tutorials. Oh yeah, and that gym membership that comes with your student fees

It is mainly for the above reason that I haven't done the independent study thing. It would be quite doable at my school though, since not only are the notes/slides/images on the web, but all the lectures are recorded and archived on streaming video.

If you use the "Miss Class" method, I think in the time you save, you should be able to work 20 hours/week in addition to studying 30-40 hours/week; I couldn't think of any other way to justify it.

 

[NUgoofygirl]

Hey Nuclearrabbit you still feeling good about missing class? I was loving it too, but I don't think I'm going to be loving the grade I'll be getting on that lecture test--definately kicked my ass!!

I'd have to agree with you Al about Telser and his test questions, especially the practicle EM questions!! Where oh where did those come from?!?! I'm sorry, I can't tell what type of cell I'm looking at if all I see is a quarter of it blown up to the size of an 8 X 10 picture!!

I'm really hoping I won't be reintroducing myself to the human body and endocrine system this summer!!

Whoo, just needed to vent a bit...

 

[nuclearrabbit77]

another NU 1st year poster....... hmm i wonder who you are..

 

[CaptainJack02]

"If you just want to pass and then don't care about the AOA point"

What is AOA?

 

[CaptainJack02]

"If you just want to pass and then don't care about the AOA point"

What is AOA?

 

[Fletch_F_Fletch]

AOA is Alpha Omega Alpha, which is the nationwide med school honor society (analogous to Phi Beta Kappa or something like that from undergrad). I think it's typically given to the top 15%, so those that honor all their classes the first couple of years typically get it (though I think third year rotation evaluations probably weigh more). I'm not really the one to ask about it, since I'm a first year also.

Relative to this thread, I never go to class either. It's easy to get away with it this semester, especially since we're H/P/F here. I'll probably start going next semester when we start up Gross, and obviously I'll have to show up to lab. I've just found it a waste of time this semester, especially Biochem.... I don't need to get up at 6:45 for an 8 am lecture to have someone read the syllabus back to us word for word. I'll go to class if I am having difficulty understanding the material, but so far most classes have been more volume-oriented than conceptually difficult. I'm passing my classes easily, no honors yet, though. Usually a little above the mean on pretty much every exam.